Kidnapped Chibok Girls Plead For Release In New Video.

LAGOS—President Goodluck Jonathan has reportedly seen a new video released by Boko Haram, where the abducted school girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, spoke about their ordeal in the hands of the insurgents for the first time and pleaded with him to secure their release.
The girls were reportedly ill and are in camps located in Chad, Niger and Cameroon, with one of them nursing a broken wrist.
The footage, not released publicly but seen by the London-based The Mail on Sunday was taken in a jungle clearing a month after their abduction.

A screengrab taken on May 12, 2014, from a video of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram obtained by AFP shows girls, wearing the full-length hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location.

More than 250 girls were taken in a raid on their school in Chibok on April 14 by Boko Haram terrorists.
However, Cameroon’s military reportedly killed about 40 Boko Haram militants in the country’s northwest last weekend, a government radio reported yesterday, a day after Nigeria labelled the Central African nation the weakest link in its fight against the extremist sect.
The clashes leading to the killing occurred in the town of Kouserri, which borders Nigeria and Chad.
Cameroon, a clog in the wheel
The Federal Government regards Cameroun as not cooperative as Niger and Chad in the fight against Boko Haram.
After a security summit in Paris two weeks ago, Cameroon said it deployed 1,000 troops to its border to help contain the increasingly deadly group.
A series of suspected Boko Haram attacks in four villages in Nigeria’s restive North-East killed several people, residents said Sunday, in the latest violence blamed on the Islamist insurgents.
The military was not immediately available to comment on the raids in Borno State, the hardest hit area during Boko Haram’s five-year extremist uprising, which has killed thousands.
All of the targeted villages are in the Gamboru Ngala district near the border with Cameroon, where Boko Haram killed hundreds in a gruesome attack earlier last month.
The video, according to The Mail of London, indicated that the girls looked healthy, as eight of them, dressed in their home-made school uniforms of pale blue gingham, pleaded for release while standing courageously in front of the camera.
They were reportedly clearly scared, upset and trying to be brave, with each walking in turn to a spot in front of a white sheet fixed to a crude frame between the trees.
According to The Mail, four of the girls can be heard clearly in Hausa language stating that they were taken by force and that they were hungry.
The video indicated that a tall girl, aged about 18, said tearfully that “My family will be so worried”, even as another spoke softly, saying ‘I never expected to suffer like this in my life.”
Similarly, a third girl was captured in the video as saying ‘they have taken us away by force’, while the fourth complained of not getting enough food.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, reportedly released the new video of the kidnapped girls praying after their conversion to Islam.
The video, taken by an intermediary on May 19, has been shown to President Goodluck Jonathan and was intended to serve as ‘proof of life’ for the girls and to encourage the President to accede to the terrorists’ demands.
Two earlier videos showed the girls seated on the ground, dressed in hijabs, reciting the Koran,with Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, declaring he would sell them into slavery, or marry them off to their kidnappers, if members of his sect were not released from prison.
The Mail said pressure from the international community and criticism of the President’s slow response to the kidnapping have led to a series of contradictory pronouncements from his government. Ministers have declared they will not negotiate with Boko Haram, or consider the release of prisoners, while official spokesmen have said ‘the window is always open for dialogue’.
At a Paris peace summit, several West African countries neighbouring Nigeria vowed to join in ‘outright war’ against the terrorists. Britain, France and America pledged their support and have sent teams of military experts and advisers to the region. Intelligence sources have told The Mail of several rescue attempts, one  involving the release of suspected low-level Boko Haram members detained without charges or trial.
Two attempts were aborted at the last minute when the terrorists took fright while delivering a group of girls to a safe location.
Last week, Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh said the government knew the location of the girls and claimed that police and military had been ‘following them’ since the abduction. He refused to divulge details, saying it would put the girls in further danger.
The Mail claimed that Badeh’s announcement may have been the result of government officials seeing the new, unpublished video and may have been able to persuade Boko Haram’s intermediary to provide details of the location. It is believed the hostages have been split into at least four groups.
The report said one Dr Stephen Davis, an Australian who has advised three Nigerian presidents on how to negotiate with the country’s militant groups, has spent the past month trying to help free the girls.
Most Chibok girls not held in Nigeria
‘The vast majority of the  Chibok girls are not being held in Nigeria,’ he said.
‘They are in camps across the Nigerian border in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. I say the “vast majority” as I know a small group was confirmed to me to be in Nigeria last week when we sought to have them released.’
Saying the Federal Government has been engaged in negotiations with Boko Haram’s spiritual leader Abubakar Shekau in a bid to secure the girls’ release, the report quoted the Australian describing how fraught the negotiation process has been.
‘One of that small group of girls is ill and we had hoped we might convince the commander of the group holding her that she should be released so we could give her medical treatment,’ Dr Davis said.
‘There are other girls who are not well and we have come close to having them released but their captors fear a trap in which they will be captured in the handover process.
‘One girl has what I assume is a broken wrist as they demonstrate to me how she holds her hand. I have been told that others are sick and in need of medical attention.’
A military source said: ‘This has been a race against time from the minute they were captured. As soon as the girls left Nigerian soil, it was always going to be more difficult.
‘The government made no attempt at a rescue until a month after they were taken. Now the situation gets more serious by the day.
‘Any sort of attempt to get to them would have to be cleared by the  governments of the other nations.’

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Four Chibok Girls Released By Boko Haram

Four out of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State,  have been released by the Boko Haram.

The Chairman, Chibok Local government Council, Mr. Bana Lawan, said on Wednesday that the girls fell ill and were released by their captors.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Lawan gave the information in Abuja at a one-day stakeholders’ meeting for validation of draft humanitarian response plan for the abducted girls.

The meeting was organised by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

He said the girls were released on Tuesday to bring the number of those that had regained their freedom to 57.

Lawan commended Nigerians for showing concern and support for Chibok people, saying the support had restored the hope and aspiration of the people for the return of peace to the community.

He also praised the Federal Government’s prompt intervention through the provision of relief items for the people.

He urged the government to resuscitate the facilities destroyed by the insurgents and improve security in the affected school to boost the morale of the students.

Lawan explained that boys were encouraged to attend GGSS in Chibok because of the lack of education facilities in the area and appealed for the construction of boys’ hostels in the school.

He said the construction of the hostels would reduce the hardship faced by the students, who attended school from afar.

Dear Readers, do you think Boko Haram has a soft spot to have released the girls who were sick and by that action are willingly to have a Peaceful negiotiation with the Federal Government?

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#Bringbackourgirls: As NUT Protest Sweeps Across Nigeria's State Capitals.

A Wave of Protests swept through Nigeria in most state capitals as the teachers, under the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, protested the death of 173 colleagues who lost their lives during the Boko Haram Attacks and a Bring Back Our Girls Campaign demanding for the release of the Abducted Girls in Chibok Borno State.The NUT marched across the Federation in their State Capital to their Respective Governor's Offices.


In Abuja
Hassan Jibril, the NUT Chairman, said: “All teachers in Nigeria today (yesterday) in solidarity to the families of the abducted Chibok girls are demonstrating and protesting their feelings through this rally to show our concern as people who are directly affected and who have been under direct attacks of  Boko Haram in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian teachers are demanding from the Federal Government that they should ensure safe release of the abducted girls. We do not want a situation whereby the rescue operations may be exchanging gunfire and probably get anyone killed.
“We say no to this. We want them back into the classroom safe and alive so that we can continue to teach them their curriculum and they perfectly seat for the conclusion of their examinations.”

Lagos
The Chairman, Lagos NUT, Mr. Adesegun Raheem in the letter said: “It is pertinent at this time to call on Nigerian government to bring back our girls safe and alive by demonstrating enough social responsibility and concern to guarantee security of lives and property in the land, which is the primary responsibility of any government.
Ogun
 State Chairman of NUT, Dare Ilekoya,
Ilekoya said the union felt burdened and depressed just like the parents of the Chibok schoolgirls.
He said teachers in the troubled areas were living under constant fears of attack with their social condition further plummeting. He urged the government to give their plight immediate national priority.

Ondo
Chairman, Ojo Fanimokun “as teachers, now living under constant fears of attack with their social condition further plummeting, a national concern for our plight must take immediate national importance.”

Oyo
National Association of Women Academics, NAWACS; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso branch, the President of the group,  Professor Akin Akintunde,
She said: “We in NAWACS feel so bad that our future mothers are being inhumanly treated and subjected to dehumanising conditions.”

Rivers
Chairman, Mr. Godfrey Nwogu, “We are praying God to touch the minds of the kidnappers to release the girls unconditionally. Government should also provide security around schools to protect everyone.”

Delta State
Chairman of NUT, Delta State, Jonathan Jerieyigbe,
He said: “In abducting the Chibok girls, Boko Haram is attempting at stopping our girls from what they are and inhibiting them from what they want to become through education and this is playing God. On this, we say bring back our girls safe and alive.”

Bauchi
Chairman of NUT, Danjuma Sale said: “We demand that the Federal and all the respective state governments in the country exhibit true concern for the affected families of the 173 teachers  in Borno and Yobe states, who lost their lives to the barbaric,  uncivilised and wicked act of terrorism  by paying them adequate compensation to soothe their misery.
“We are pleading with the Federal Government to do all it can to bring back our abducted girls safe and alive.
The government should also demonstrate a sense of  social responsibility and concern by guaranteeing the  security of lives and property in the land which is the primary priority of any responsible government.”

Protests swept through most state capitals in the country including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as teachers, under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, protested the death of 173 colleagues killed during the Boko Haram attacks in Borno and Yobe states.

The protest was also part of global Bring Back Our Girls campaign, demanding immediate release of the more than 200 abducted girls of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, over a month ago.
National Leadership of NUT had declared yesterday a day of national protest to mourn the dead colleagues killed by insurgents and the continued abduction of Chibok schoolgirls by the Boko Haram terrorists.
The protesting teachers called on  government and security agencies to ensure the abducted girls were brought back ‘safe  and alive’.
Lagos
In Lagos, most public primary and secondary schools were shut because of the protest. When Vanguard visited some primary and secondary schools, they were under lock and key, which signifies a massive compliance with the directive.
Secondary schools at the Tolu Complex, Ajegunle, with over 15 schools, also complied with the directive.
When Vanguard visited Awodi-Ora Secondary School, the students and their teachers were in school. However, at 11 a.m. the school authorities directed the students to go home.
In a letter addressed to Governor Babatunde Fashola, the teachers demanded for the release of the girls, pointing out that they had been thrown into sorrow since the abduction on April 14.
The Chairman, Lagos NUT, Mr. Adesegun Raheem in the letter said: “It is pertinent at this time to call on Nigerian government to bring back our girls safe and alive by demonstrating enough social responsibility and concern to guarantee security of lives and property in the land, which is the primary responsibility of any government.

Ogun
In Ogun, leading the protesters to the governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state Chairman of NUT, Dare Ilekoya, described the abduction of the girls as a stumbling block to the realisation of making education available to all by the year 2015.
The NUT, which had shut down all the schools in the state,  marched to the governor’s office where they presented a speech delivered by Ilekoya.
Ilekoya said the union felt burdened and depressed just like the parents of the Chibok schoolgirls.
He said teachers in the troubled areas were living under constant fears of attack with their social condition further plummeting. He urged the government to give their plight immediate national priority.

Ondo
Similarly, in Ondo State, the protesting teachers led by their Chairman, Ojo Fanimokun, displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Boko Haram is evil,” “Bring an end to Boko Haram insurgence,” “Western education is a means to civilization.”
Fanimokun urged the Federal Government to demonstrate enough social responsibility and concern to guarantee security of lives and property in the country, saying “as teachers, now living under constant fears of attack with their social condition further plummeting, a national concern for our plight must take immediate national importance.”

Oyo
In Ibadan, scores of women and secondary school girls trooped to major streets calling for more proactive steps that would lead to the release of the abducted Chibok girls.
This came as National Association of Women Academics, NAWACS; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso branch, described the continued incarceration of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls as ungodly.
Speaking during a rally to protest the incident in Ogbomoso, yesterday, the President of the group,  Professor Akin Akintunde, said the continued incarceration was “a blow” to the promotion of girl-child education in the country.
Akintunde said that the abduction was in conflict with the holy books which recommended the  protection of women.
She also said that the action of the abductors negated the dictates of morality through perversion of values.
She said: “We in NAWACS feel so bad that our future mothers are being inhumanly treated and subjected to dehumanising conditions.”

In Abuja
Also in the FCT, the NUT Chairman, Hassan Jibril, said the rally was in solidarity with the families of the abducted girls in Chibok.
Jibril said: “All teachers in Nigeria today (yesterday) in solidarity to the families of the abducted Chibok girls are demonstrating and protesting their feelings through this rally to show our concern as people who are directly affected and who have been under direct attacks of  Boko Haram in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian teachers are demanding from the Federal Government that they should ensure safe release of the abducted girls. We do not want a situation whereby the rescue operations may be exchanging gunfire and probably get anyone killed.
“We say no to this. We want them back into the classroom safe and alive so that we can continue to teach them their curriculum and they perfectly seat for the conclusion of their examinations.”

Rivers
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State branch of NUT, led by the state Chairman, Mr. Godfrey Nwogu, matched on a portion of Aba Road in Port Harcourt, calling for the unconditional release of the kidnapped Chibok girls.
He said: “We are praying God to touch the minds of the kidnappers to release the girls unconditionally. Government should also provide security around schools to protect everyone.”
The teachers, who described the kidnap of the female students as shameful and barbaric, also called for payment of compensation to families of teachers that have been killed by the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
They further appealed to government to secure schools round the country.

Delta State
Also in Asaba, Chairman of NUT, Delta State wing, Jonathan Jerieyigbe, in an address he presented to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, observed that education remained the bedrock of the society, stressing that the abduction of the Chibok girls and killing of teachers is a direct attack on the educational system.
He said: “In abducting the Chibok girls, Boko Haram is attempting at stopping our girls from what they are and inhibiting them from what they want to become through education and this is playing God. On this, we say bring back our girls safe and alive.”

Bauchi
In Bauchi, Chairman of NUT, Danjuma Sale, while leading the protesters who marched on Bauchi streets to the Government House, said: “We demand that the Federal and all the respective state governments in the country exhibit true concern for the affected families of the 173 teachers  in Borno and Yobe states, who lost their lives to the barbaric,  uncivilised and wicked act of terrorism  by paying them adequate compensation to soothe their misery.
“We are pleading with the Federal Government to do all it can to bring back our abducted girls safe and alive.
The government should also demonstrate a sense of  social responsibility and concern by guaranteeing the  security of lives and property in the land which is the primary priority of any responsible government.”
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/05/nut-shuts-schools-nationwide-chibok-schoolgirls/#sthash.dhp5TCLV.dpuf